Guards: Sexier Than You Think

Interior Linemen Are Headlining an NFL Draft Class—For the First Time

By

Jonathan Clegg

April 22, 2013 7:19 p.m. ET

Last year, the NFL was spoiled rotten by a draft class that was brimming with talent at the game's glamour position: quarterback. The sublime gifts of blue-chip passers like Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III made 2012 one of the sexiest drafts in football history.

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North Carolina offensive lineman Jonathan Cooper
Associated Press

This year, fate has dealt the NFL a decidedly different hand—at least in the glamour department. Gil Brandt, a former Dallas Cowboys personnel executive and draft historian, says this year's most impressive collection of elite NFL prospects at one position is actually pretty remarkable. "It's just a shame they happen to play offensive guard."

Several offensive tackles and centers have been taken with the No. 1 overall pick. A fullback has also enjoyed the honor. But never has the first person called to the stage been a guard. In fact, the last time an NFL team spent a top-five pick on a guard was in 1975 when the Baltimore Colts took North Carolina guard Ken Huff at No. 3. Not since 1997 has a guard been drafted even with a top-10 selection.

This year, however, fotball is enjoying something of a guard smörgåsbord. Alabama's Chance Warmack has been tabbed by some analysts as the best player in the draft and an outside contender to be taken No. 1 overall. At the same time, scouts, coaches and GMs say North Carolina's Jonathan Cooper could also crack the top-10 picks. Oregon's Kyle Long and Syracuse's Justin Pugh (likely converting from tackle) are also potential first-rounders. This means that as many as four guards could be drafted in the first round—the most since 1986.

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Alabama's Chance Warmack
Associated Press

"People will tell me I'm crazy, that a guard can't go No. 1," said Mike Mayock, a draft analyst for the NFL Network. "But Chance Warmack is the best football player I saw on tape this year. And Jonathan Cooper is just a tiny notch behind him."

Even among the linemen who toil anonymously in the NFL's trenches, guards have long resided at the bottom of the pecking order. They don't need the same freakish blend of size and quickness that allows tackles to take on pass rushers one-on-one. Unlike centers, they are rarely called upon to anticipate blitzes and make protection calls.

As such, guards have historically been seen as heavy-footed lumberers who could be easily unearthed in the draft's later rounds. "[Teams] are looking for guys who can run with power, run it consecutive times and smash into people until they can't hardly think," said North Carolina's Cooper. "It's not a glamour position."

One thing that has helped the draft stock of guards this year is the general lack of jaw-dropping talent at the glamour positions. It's conceivable that no quarterback or running back will be drafted in Thursday's first round. The top receiver, West Virginia's Tavon Austin, is hardly a sure thing at 5 feet 8.

Another factor: the preponderance of pass-happy offenses in the NFL may be causing teams to reconsider the value of interior linemen. And as more teams incorporate elements of the spread offense—a collegiate scheme that calls for quick drops and fast throws—defenses have countered with a greater number of blitzes up the middle as they seek to get immediate pressure on the quarterback via the shortest route.

But the biggest reason guards may shoot up draft board is the changing economic climate of the modern NFL. For most of the last decade, the salaries commanded by highly drafted rookies were so astronomical it was unthinkable to commit such sums to interior linemen. But in 2011, the NFL introduced a rookie wage cap that reduced the pay for top-10 picks by tying salaries to a sliding scale. The result: The top slots on draft boards are no longer the exclusive preserve of quarterbacks, tackles and pass rushers.

Prior to the wage scale, the top five picks in the 2010 NFL draft received, on average, a rookie contract worth $65.8 million. That would have been by far the most-lucrative ever awarded to a guard. But since the pay scale began, the average deal for a top-five pick is four years and $20.4 million.

"If ever there was a time for a guard to go early," says Detroit Lions general manager Martin Mayhew, who holds the No. 5 pick, "it would be this year."

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